Platform unit for shoes



y 1959 G. BROWNING, JR 2,396,340

PLATFORM UNIT FOR SHOES Filed Jan. 28, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. I 4 i g w m z w July 28, 1959 G. BROWNING, JR 2,396,340

PLATFORM UNIT FOR SHOES Filed Jan. 28, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

July 28, 1959 G. BROWNING, JR 2,896,340 PLATFORM UNIT FOR SHOES Filed Jan. 28, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR.

, [W 'W s United States Patent Q PLATFORM UNIT FOR SHOES George Browning, Jr., Hooksett, N.H., assignor to B.G.S. Shoe Corporation, Manchester, N.H., a corporation of New Hampshire Application January 28, 1958,.Serial No. 711,666 2 Claims. (CI. 36-30) This invention comprises a platform unit ready for incorporation in a shoe. The unit is improved in appearance, mechanical structure and ease of manufacture as compared with such units heretofore available in the shoemaking industry.

As herein shown, this new and improved unit may be embodied in a platform having a wedge heel section of substantial height or in any type of cushion platform, and is useful as a complete and finished component of sandal type shoes or sandals as well as having a more general application.

Going more into detail, the platform unit of this invention comprises a body having a wedge heel portion of increased thickness, a cover of upper leather such as sock lining material overlying the heel seat portion of the platform and lasted over the forepart thereof, and a cover strip attached to the heel seat and shank por tions of the body cover and lasted over the wedge heel portion of the platform.

If the platform is to be used in a cushion type shoe the interior body may include one or more cushion plies supported by a ply of fiberboard or the like which, though flexible, is sufficiently stiff to maintain permanently the general shape and fine lines of the unit. The body cover and the cover strip are stitched together about the heel seat and shank portions of the unit in overlapping relation and then turned so that the finished unit presents an ornamental rolled edge effect throughout these portions of its periphery.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. l is a plan view of the body cover,

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the laminated platform body,

Fig. 3 is a corresponding view in side elevation,

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the cover strip,

Figs. 5, 6 and 7 are views in perspective suggesting the operation of sewing together the cover members of the unit,

Fig. 8 is a view in perspective suggesting the step of applying cement to the bottom of the platform body,

Fig. 9 is a view in perspective of the unit in inverted position showing the cover strip as partially lasted, and

Fig. 10 is a view in perspective of the complete unit as embodied in a shoe of sandal type.

The platform unit as herein shown comprises three essential components, a main body cover, a heel seat cover strip, and a laminated platform body or core which in the finished unit is enclosed in the two cover blanks which may be formed of any fabric desired to impart an ornamental pleasing appearance and a smooth comfortablewearing surface to the unit.

The main body cover 10 as shown in Fig. 1 is cut accurately to size throughout its heel seat and shank portions and is sufliciently large throughout the fore part to provide material or lasting allowance 10', for

wrapping around the peripheral edge of the platform body It may be formed fromupper leather suitable for a sock lining or artificial leather and is herein shown as having a textile backing 11. It is provided also with a heel pad 12 which coincides with the contour of its heel seat portion.

The second component of the unit comprises a heel seat cover strip 13 of substantially the shape shown in Fig. 4 and this may be formed of the same material as the main body cover 10 or of a contrasting material. The strip is elongated, having a length to width ratio of approximately 8 to 1 and has curved tapering end portions. The strip 13 is wide enough to cover the thick heel seat end of the platform body with sufficient marginal stock to serve as lasting allowance 13 as shown in Fig. 9. It is provided at each end with slashes 14 which facilitate the cover lasting step as will appear hereinafter.

The third components of the unit comprises the body of the platform and this, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, may consist of a full length ply 15 of sponge rubber bonded throughout its area to a full length ply 16 of fiberboard which supplies the necessary stiffness and resiliency to the unit. The fiberboard ply is supplemented throughout its heel seat with a wedge section 17 of the same material, and the sponge rubber ply 15 is supplemented throughout its heel seat portion by a wedge section 18 of sponge rubber.

Figs. 5-7 suggest the preferred manner of uniting the two cover blanks. The cover strip 13 is brought into accurate registration with the body cover 10 by means of match marks which are formed in these blanks when they are originally died out and stitched together in insideout condition about the entire length of their heel seat and shank portions. This includes the entire marginal edge of the body cover where it is cut to register with the platform body and slightly overlaps the lasting allowance of the body cover. The stitched blanks are then turned so that the stitching presents a rolled edge effect in the cover blanks and these are then applied to the platform body. If the unit is to include an ankle strap 19, the ends of the strap may be caught in to the stitching which unites the two cover parts.

Having completed the cover in this manner it is now applied to the laminated platform body as suggested in Figs. 8 and 9. In this operation the shank and heel seat portion of the body cover lies smoothly upon the corresponding parts of the platform body with the last ing allowance 10" of the body cover 10 disposed about the peripheral edge of the forepart and the lasting allowance 13' of the cover strip 13 similarly enclosing the peripheral edge of the heel seat and shank portion of the platform body. Cement is now applied to the fiber plies 16 and 17 of the platform body and thereupon the lasting margin of the two covers is overlasted and secured to the bottom of the platform body as shown in Fig. 9. The platform unit is thus completed and may now be conveniently secured to an outsole or a midsole of any desired or conventional type.

The body cover 10 and the cover strip 13 may be lasted upon the platform body by hand or with the assistance of conventional cover-lasting machinery readily available to the industry. In the lasting step the slashes 14 of the cover strip open as shown in Fig. 9 and so facilitate the conformation of the strip to the enclosed platform body.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described in detail a preferred embodiment thereof, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A platform unit for shoes comprising a laminated body of fiber and sponge rubber plies having a thick wedge heel seat portion, a body cover of sheet material registering in contour with the heel seat and shank portions of said body and enlarged in its forepart to include a lasting allowance which is wrapped about the forepart thereof, and a cover strip stitched to the body cover about the margin of its heel seat portion and wrapped about the Wedge heel seatportion of the laminated platform body. 1

2. A platform unit comprising a body including a stifi resilient fiber ply, a superposed cushion ply and a wedge heel section, a body cover of sheet material coinciding in its heel seat portion with the contour of the heelseat portion of the platform body and enlarged to include a lasting allowance about its forepart which overlaps and is cemented to the fiber ply of the said body,

a long narrow cover strip having tapered ends and being 15 '4 wrapped about the wedge heel portion of the platform body and by securing the heel seat portion of the body cover to said narrow cover strip.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,313,552 Iliff Mar. 9, 1943 2,321,713 Turner June 15, 1943 2,367,808 Starner Jan. 23, 1945 2,543,183 Maling Feb. 27, 1951 2,551,075 Walsh May 1, 1951 2,695,464 Sherman Nov. 30, 1954 4 1 FOREIGN PATENTS 121,099 Australia Feb. 25, 1946 

